The Devil and Tom Walker Character Analysis

From the beginning of time the devil has been known to trick weak people. Old Scratch, Belcebub, Lucifer or simply the devil has been the antagonist for all religious beliefs in the whole planet. The story “The Devil and Tom Walker” by Washington Irvin shows how this abominable creature, the devil, tricks people in order to get their soul. Throughout times people have believed that the devil gave temptations in order to fall for them so he can take our souls and our life. In this story the devil is depicted as an evil, red-eyed man that causes fear and tricks everyone. The devil is one of the main characters in the mentioned story and the source of the external and internal conflict.

To begin with, the devil’s tricks have been taken by human beings throughout the history of mankind. The Devil often ask for ones soul in exchange for riches and necessities that make the person to accept the deal because it is almost impossible to retract the offer. This archetype of devil has been seen in many different stories, in many different cultures. In this story the devil takes a major participation because he is pushing tom walker to take the deal. The devil is often to make many and different temptations in order to achieve his goal. Tom Walker is a contrast to other characters that appear in these stories because he has no fear towards the devil, due to his daily fights with the wife. This was not Tom’s trouble but instead the character, the devil gives him riches in exchange of the soul. In that case both win but the devil as deceitful as he is knew that suddenly Tom would fall for and the devil would win his soul. In this quote shows how the devil gives him riches the buccaneer treasure he holds. Also; it shows his eagerness to gain wealth, to leave his past behind, and how terribly influenced he was by his greed. “At length, it is said, when delay had whetted Tom's eagerness to the quick, and prepared him...

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...The Devil and TomWalker
Washington Irving’s “The Devil and TomWalker”, shows us that greed and hypocrisy will only haunt you in the end. The story takes place in New England in the late 1700’s. The narrator tells a story about a man’s encounter with the devil or “Old Scratch”. While most people don’t believe the wild story, the narrator swears that the story is indeed true.
A local legend says that there is buried treasure located in a grove on the outskirts of Boston. The legend states that Kidd the Pirate left it there and that it was being guarded by the devil. Accidently Tom dug up an old skull and a voice yelled at him. The voice belongs to a man who is “blackened by soot and grime” and who introduces himself as “the Black Woodsman”. After conversing for a few minutes the devil offers to exchange the treasure for a few favors. Tom declines and returns home to his miserly wife.
Once he arrives home he tells his wife about his encounter with the devil and his proposition. His wife then yells at him for not taking the devil up on the opportunity to sell his soul for wealth, and she storms out of the house to search for the devil to make a deal with him. She then gathers a few possessions that had monetary value and brought them to the woods in her apron....

...Mundy’s Mill High School
Department of Foreign Language
Jonesboro, GA
Instructor’s Name: Florencia I. Anderson Class Name: Spanish II Room No. 115
E-mail: fanderson@clayton.k12.ga.us Textbook: Glencoe – En Español Replacement cost: $ 55
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Course Description:
Spanish is a college preparatory course designed to teach students to communicate in Spanish. Emphasis will be placed
on all four components of language acquisition: reading, writing, listening and speaking, as well as the culture of
Spanish-Speaking countries through daily activities in the classroom, projects and presentations. The essential goal of this
course is to continue to develop your communicative competence in the target language and to understand the target culture.
Required Materials: Suggested Materials:
. Notebook . Spanish/English, English/Spanish Dictionary
. Pencils/ Pen . Color Markers
. Three ring binder . Construction Paper
. Index cards . Scissors, glue, and ruler
Classroom Expectations:
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Every student is expected to be prepared to come to class every day, by preparing homework as this is essential to reach our
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...﻿The Devil and TomWalker
Near a swamp in 1727, TomWalker and his wife live there miserly lives. They are so greedy that they try to cheat each other and they are constantly fighting. One day Tom makes a shortcut through the swamp and finds an Indian skull with a tomahawk in it. Tom kicks the skull and hears a voice. He looks up to see it’s a black man sitting on a stump. Tom recognizes him as the Devil. The Devil talks about Kidd’s buried pirates treasure and confirms it is real and offers it to Tom with a catch, Tom’s soul. The devil proves its him by leaving his burned fingerprint in Tom’s forehead. Tom tells his wife and she urges him to accept it. Out of spite, he refuses. The wife decides to make a deal with the Devil and keep the profits for herself. Tom’s wife leaves the house for the Devil, taking all the house’s valuables with her. When she is gone for several days, Tom goes looking for her, because he wants the house’s valuables back. He sees his wife’s apron and thinking it has the valuables in it he opens it and finds her heart and liver. His wife died attempting to make a deal with the Devil. Tom is happy his wife is dead. Tom is grateful of the Devil and accepts his deal. The...

...American society. One critic, Elisabeth Piedmont-Marton, proposes that, "The Devil and TomWalker is hardly a new Eden, unspoiled and uncorrupt. Rather the fictional landscape of The Devil and TomWalker seems haunted by events of the past and infused by Irving's occasionally biting satire." Inspired by events in the past, Irving infuses them into his stories, which effects the ways the characters are portrayed, how the story is told, and how the themes are infused in by characterization.
One critic, Charles G. Zug III, argues that, "the tale has certain Germanic overtones but is indigenous to the young American republic in which Irving grew up." The Devil and TomWalker is based on a series of folk motifs gathered by Irving from a enormous variety of sources. In 1824, Irving took a year long journey to Germany, showing an increasing interest in German lore and literature. His trip to Germany gave him an opportunity to investigate and gather up German folklore at first-hand. In other words, "Irving was out to collect folklore in it's purest state, direct from oral transmission" (Zug III). As the year progresses while Irving is in Germany, it appears that he enlarged his working knowledge of German folklore. The german experience taught him the technique of combining and recombining these materials to form new tales. These...

...In the short story “The Devil and TomWalker”, the author shows greed by the main character selling his soul for a large treasure, being a cheap and greedy moneylender, and the lack of the main character and his wife sharing the wealth between each other in order to show that people will do anything for money and become rich.
“The Devil and TomWalker” was written by Washington Irving. Washington was a very famous American author. Washington Irving was born in New York on April 3, 1783. In his childhood he only went through a basic education. During this time, he showed interest in reading and writing (Washington). In 1815, Irving moved to London to work for his family’s business. But, the family business closed due to failure. After that occurrence, he decided to be a committed full time writer. He thought that to be successful he would need to write differently than the American author would. “Irving believed that in order for an American author to succeed; he or she had to imitate the literature of the British” (Short, 48). This lead to Irving’s first book, The Sketch Book, which contained 32 short stories. He decided to write the name under the pen name of Geoffrey Crayon (Washington). Similarly, another book he wrote was called Tales of a Traveler. Tales of a Traveler contains one of Washington Irving’s famous stories, “The Devil and...

...Neale 1/18/00
"The Devil and TomWalker" by Washington Irving, "The Minister's Black Veil," by Hawthorne, and The Crucible, by Arthur Miller all share similar themes and they all use different genres and forms to help express the story's theme. The three stories all comment on Puritan beliefs and the nature of man, and they deal with the fear of the unknown and not wanting to face the truths. "The Devil and TomWalker" is a folk tale, which uses satire to describe Puritan beliefs. "The Minister's Black Veil" is a parable and an allegory, where the people and objects in the story all symbolize something. The Crucible is a historical drama, which deals with Puritan beliefs directly and in a serious matter.
" The Devil and TomWalker is a folk tale which teaches a lesson and uses stock characters. The idea of stock characters is present in the character of Tom, meaning he never undergoes any change throughout the story. This story uses a lot of imagery and alliteration to help describe the forest and Tom's house. For example, when Tom is walking through the woods, it is described, as a place that is "dark at noonday" and "the swamp was thickly grown with great gloomy pines and hemlocks." The author gives a dark mood to the story by using so much imagery with the...

...What is the setting of “The Devil and TomWalker?”
C) A forest near Boston, Massachusetts, circa 1727
2. TomWalker might be described as
D) stingy and cruel but courageous.
3. Tom Walker’s wife is best described as
A) generous and much loved by her neighbors.
B) kind toward her husband, but cruel to others.
C) yearning for companionship.
D) fierce shrew, always nagging and yelling.
4. In “The Devil and TomWalker,” the woods are used to symbolize
A) evil.
B) goodness.
C) isolation.
D) greed.
5. Which of the following phrases from “The Devil and TomWalker” is an example of Irving’s use of humor?
A) “Tom consoled himself for the loss of his property, with the loss of his wife, for he was a man of fortitude.”
B) “He knows how to play his cards when pretty sure of his game.”
C) “He insisted that the money found through his means should be employed in his service.”
D) “ ‘You shall extort bonds, foreclose mortgages, drive the merchants to bankruptcy—.’ ”
6. In “The Devil and TomWalker,” what does Irving use to symbolize hypocrisy and hidden evil?
A) The devil’s deal with Tom
B) Mrs. Walker’s heart and liver, wrapped in the checked apron
C) The flourishing trees that are rotten to the...

...2014
“The Devil and TomWalker”
1) The narrator uses specific details to explain how TomWalker and his wife “were so miserly
that they even conspired to cheat each other.” The narrator notes that “many and fierce were
the conflicts that took place about what ought to have been common property.” The narrator
describes Tom Walker’s wife as “a tall termagant, fierce of temper, loud of tongue, and strong
of arm. Her voice was often heard in wordy warfare with her husband; and his face sometimes
showed signs that their conflicts were not confined to words.” The narrator also presents
details about the couple’s house to justify the despicable reputation that TomWalker and his
wife earned.
2) The stranger that TomWalker encounters is “a great black man” who appeared “neither
negro nor Indian,” but rather possessed a face “begrimed with soot, as if he had been
accustomed to toil among fires and forges.” “Dressed in a rude, half Indian garb,” the man
“bore an axe on his shoulder.” The man even “scowled for a moment at Tom with a pair of
great red eyes.” The man insists that he possesses “the right of prior claim” to the woodland
since it belonged to him long before one of the “white faced race put foot upon the soil." In
addition, the man notes that he has “various names...the Wild Huntsman in some countries; the
Black Miner in...